Bob Dylan had a private audience with Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican this week, almost 30 years after performing for Pope John Paul II.
The Vatican's official newspaper confirmed the meeting, referring to Dylan by his birth name, reporting that the Pope had “received in private audience Mr Robert Allen Zimmerman”.
The American singer-songwriter, 85, visited the Apostolic Palace in Rome on Wednesday, where he met the Chicago-born pontiff, 71.
The pair exchanged gifts, with Leo presenting Dylan with a rosary and the musician handing the pope a copy of his memoir, Chronicles: Volume One.
The Vatican News called their meeting “brief”, and reported that it “consisted of greetings and a few light-hearted exchanges”.
Photos circulated online showed Leo dressed in his traditional white papal attire, while Dylan wore a black coat, gloves and a hooded top, carrying a black umbrella.
The encounter was arranged by Jesuit priest Father Antonio Spadaro, a Vatican official who has developed relationships between the Catholic Church and prominent figures in the arts. He previously helped organise Leo's meeting with singer Patti Smith.
Describing the occasion, Spadaro wrote on social media: “It was hard not to feel the emotion of being part of an encounter that had a real sense of history about it, with the feeling that, at every step through the Apostolic Palace, absolutely anything could happen.”
Leo has previously demonstrated his knowledge of Dylan's catalogue, quoting one of the singer's unpublished songs in a book about peace and disarmament.
The lyrics came from Go Away You Bomb, an anti-nuclear protest song Dylan wrote in 1963 during the Cold War. The track was never recorded, and its typewritten lyrics remained unpublished until they emerged decades later.
In the foreword to Disarmed and Disarming: Peace Is a Gift, published in July, Leo cited the line: “I hate you cause yer man-made and man-owned, an' man-handled.”
The quotation formed part of the pope's argument against the development and possession of nuclear weapons, a subject on which he has repeatedly called for international restraint.
Born in Minnesota, Dylan grew up in a Jewish household before becoming increasingly interested in Christianity during the 1970s. His subsequent born-again period prompted a significant shift in his music, with three gospel-influenced albums released between 1979 and 1981.
His relationship with religion has remained a subject of interest throughout his career, although he has rarely offered straightforward explanations of his personal beliefs.
In 1997, Dylan performed for Pope John Paul II at the 23rd National Eucharistic Congress in Bologna, where approximately 300,000 young people had gathered.
His set included some of his best-known songs, among them Knockin' on Heaven's Door, Forever Young and A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall.
John Paul subsequently drew on Dylan's Blowin' in the Wind during his address, using the song's famous question about the journey towards manhood to introduce a Christian message.
“You ask me: how many roads must a man walk down before you can call him a man?” the then-pope said, before offering his own response: “Only one. There is only one road for man, and that is the road of Jesus Christ.”
Dylan is in Italy as part of his Rough and Rowdy Ways tour and is due to perform at Rome's Palazzo dello Sport on Thursday. The concert is among several Italian dates on the European leg of the tour.
Dylan received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2016, becoming the first songwriter to receive the award. The Swedish Academy recognised him for having created “new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition”.
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